T43 Hard Drive Controller Issue?

[kanderna]

Hello all -

Long time lurker, first time poster.

Recently my T43 (2687) locked up on me during normal operation. Upon restart I received the

'PXE-E61 Media Test Failure' error.

After checking all things that normally come with this error I came up empty. Then I noticed something strange... when I squeeze the hard drive area of the case really hard or "twist" the PC, I got normal hard drive operation. It booted fine and operated fine until another "flare up" (which didn't take long).

I'm still under warranty, so not a huge deal. When speaking with support, the tech said, "It sounds like it may be a bad hard drive controller."

I'm technical to a point of dangerous, but know zero about the controller. So questions...

1. Think he's right?
2. If so, how is it fixed? Will I lose my data?

Thanks!

[kanderna]

Nobody?